» EMEA accounted for 46% of transactions in the period, North America 21.9%, Asia 20.08% and Latin America 12.02%.

» A key theme of both the current and corresponding period has been the reduction in the cost of debt, as global market conditions improve, with pricing for projects down to prefinancial crisis levels.

» Banks have remained the dominant lenders, although project bonds, private placements and infrastructure debt funds have continued to emerge as alternative and complementary funding solutions.

» Arup was top technical advisor by value (USD 40.07bn) across 32 deals but Mott MacDonald secured top spot by number with 47 deals. » EY, Macquarie Capital, KPMG and PwC dominated the financial advisory table top four positions by both volume and number of transactions.

» Key transactions set to close in the final quarter include USS’ acquisition of Moto, the UK motorway service operator, Canada’s Saskatchewan Bridges P3 and the closing of the 340MW Galloper offshore wind project in Suffolk, UK.

» Fundraising for unlisted infrastructure funds continued apace in 2015 with 18 funds closing an aggregate of USD 21.70bn in the first nine months of the year. The average size of infrastructure funds closed in 2015 was USD 1.21bn with 49.6% of capital being raised by the top five largest funds, highlighting that capital is increasingly flowing to a relatively small number of experienced fund managers.

» For those GPs out on the road in 4Q15 and ‘16 the markets look increasingly competitive, particularly within the North American value-add space, where GIP, Brookfield, Alinda, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Stonepeak are all competing to secure institutional backing for their latest funds.